This invention pertains to a process of increasing the chill haze stability in aqueous liquids derived from vegetables and fruits. In particular, it relates to the addition of conventional chill haze control agents at particular locations and at particular times in the brewing process.
Various liquids derived from vegetables and fruits contain various phenolic substances, such as tannins and anthycyanogens, proteins, and compounds or complexes of two or more of these substances. Certain molecular weight compounds of the type just described are essential if the liquid is to be sold as a beverage because they contribute to such important characteristics of the beverage as flavor, aroma, foaming, etc. When the liquid is a beer or other beverage, some of the highest molecular weight molecules of the above described compounds are removed by conventional filtration used in the brewing process. However, other relatively high molecular weight compounds which escape filtration can combine after bottling, and before the product is used, to form complex molecules that cause a haze to form in the beverage, particularly when the beverage is chilled. This haze is called chill haze and is an undesirable characteristic in any beverage.
It is well known in the art to treat beverages derived from vegetables or fruits with conventional absorbents or coagulants to adsorb, or coagulate and precipitate, the undesirable tannis, proteins, or combinations thereof from the beverage before the beverage is bottled. In a conventional process, such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,416,007, ruh beer is preferably filtered prior to the addition of the adsorbent and/or coagulating or floculating agent, the adsorbent and/or coagulating or floculating agent or agents are then added to the filtered beer, allowed to rest for various periods of time, and then the beer is again filtered to remove these agents before packaging. This dual filtration requirement is undesirable from the standpoint of higher processing costs and a greater amount of filtration and related equipment required.
In another known technique of stabilizing a beverage, such as beer, against the formation of chill haze in the packaged product, enzymes are added to filtered ruh beer, the beer containing the enzymes is allowed to rest in storage under controlled conditions for various periods of time, (e.g., five full days) after which the beer must again be filtered before being packaged. A typical process of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,100,707. Such processes require at least two filtration steps and it would be desirable, for the reasons stated above, to eliminate one of these filtration steps.